Useful
by blinkblink
Summary: The obligatory post-Tanker wrap-up dealing with Snake's rescue from the Harbour. No pairings.


Disclaimer: Still don't own MGS or the characters.

Notes: This is directly followed by Resurrection. It also draws on the last codec conversation between Snake and Otacon on the tanker, so if you didn't save a million times more than necessary, you will probably be confused. If so, you can find it on youtube, I'm sure.

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Eyes on the clock rather than the road, Otacon pulled the black van into a space in the marina's deserted parking lot, the western-most point on New York's Coney Island. Not surprisingly it was empty; it was almost three in the morning, and even if it had not been, the weather alone was probably bad enough to keep even serious enthusiasts out of the bay.

Otacon slipped out of the front door, locking it behind him, and slid around into the back of the van, sneakers scuffing on the soaked asphalt. The van was a large, boxy black thing, an old used GMC. Otacon had a sneaking suspicion his partner had chosen out of love for the A-Team. The back had been carefully refitted to be a sort of mobile office, a mobile infiltration office. A long table ran across from one wall to the other, on which sat several wireless-enabled laptops and peripheral devices. The drawers contained a high-quality printer capable of spitting out i.d. cards as well as printed documents, various extra peripheral devices and other technological odds and ends. On the left towered a large but shallow cabinet of weaponry with several substantial locks, while the space on the right was taken up by a similar supply cabinet outfitted with everything from a spare sneaking suit to blankets, changes of clothes and first-aid equipment. Otacon slid into the office's one fold-up chair and pulled his main laptop out of sleep.

Snake had just entered the tanker's holds, and the ship was already almost at the Verrazano bridge. This wasn't unexpected, given the reports Snake had been sending, but it wasn't helpful either. It meant they would have to go with one of the fallbacks. There was a Finnish ocean liner scheduled to make harbour in five hours on a route that would take it close enough to the tanker that Snake could swim from one to the other. There was also, failing that, a number of small craft which would be forced to sail close in the lee of the tanker as it left the harbour fully, and Snake could take his chances boarding one of them. Either way it was going to be troublesome. It was because of this change in plans that Otacon had moved the van, trying to keep as close to his partner as possible, although with a bay separating them it was unlikely he would be of any physical help.

_Otacon, come in_. Snake's gravely voice broke into Otacon's thoughts through his codec, nano-machines stimulating his ear-drums and creating sound that only he could hear.

_I'm here. Need me to record your findings so far?_ Otacon pulled up his program on the laptop, set it to receiving.

_Yeah. I'll be uploading the pictures in a minute, and then we can get the hell out of here. Sending data now._

The little bar on the monitor began filling. A good time for some helpful advice.

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They had been met in the Bronx a couple of days ago, Mei Ling on a short vacation from her apparently laborious job, Otacon loose in New York with nothing to do for a couple of hours while Snake bought some repelling equipment, and had a coffee together at a small cafe. Mei Ling had looked well, sharply dressed as ever, well-cut clothes and carefully kept hair and make-up giving the impression of more age and experience than her twenty-one years. She stirred her vanilla latte slightly in its porcelain mug with a small spoon which she had sweet-talked from the man behind the counter. Otacon drank his plain coffee out of a paper cup.

"How are things going, Hal? You know, with work." Mei Ling smiled secretively, pulled the spoon out and placed it carefully on the table, long nails clicking delicately against the plastic surface. He shrugged.

"Oh, well. Pretty good. We haven't had any trouble." Feeling that he should probably add something to keep the conversation going, he continued, "it's just... I feel pretty useless sitting around, doing nothing but saving his acquired data and giving him tips on layouts. It not like he doesn't already have them memorized, anyway." Shadow Moses had been completely different, he had been fighting to stay alive there in his own way. The transition from that to sitting into an office and keeping charge of simply recording data and giving unneeded reminders had been welcome at first but was beginning to grow mundane.

"That's exactly how I felt, when we worked together at... before." She took a sip of her latte. "That's why I always tried to give him some helpful advice. Just something quick, you know. Little proverbs."

"Oh, really? What did he think?"

"He seemed to like them. Of course, that might just have been him flirting."

Hal rolled his eyes. Mei Ling giggled. "I'll tell you what. Why don't I make you a little cheat-sheet, just some simple ideas, and you can try them out? Maybe they'll be helpful for him."

"Hmm. I guess I could give it a shot." Otacon drained his cup, watched as the dregs at the bottom began to stain the paper a dark brown.

"Okay. I'll email some over to you, and you can see how they work. You could even add in a few of your own."

"Right."

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"Do you know the Chinese proverb 'care avoids err'?" Otacon pulled his own sheet, a mix of Mei Ling's proverbs and his own interpretations, closer, squinting slightly in the van's dim internal lights. "Err is thought to be a Kung word meaning 'what.' There are some linguists who think this accounts for an almost universal utterance of the syllable "err" when people are at a loss for words, a kind of vestigial -"

"Hey!" Mei Ling's high voice cut in behind him. Otacon spun around so fast he almost fell out of his chair, paper fluttering away to his right somewhere. Mei Ling was standing in the van behind him, staring down at him, hands on hips. She was short enough that she almost didn't have to hunch, which lent some measure of imposingness.

"Ack!"

"What a crook! What did you do with that little cheat-sheet I made you?" She glanced around the desk for it, covered in all sorts of papers and electronic equipment spread about in no particular order.

"Err" Otacon did the same. Unfortunately, she spotted it first, leant in around him quick as a heron striking at a fish, and grabbed it away before he could get his hands on it.

"Oh, there it is. Hey!" She flatted the sheet out, scanning through it in the van's dim light. The light wasn't dim enough, however, to hide Otacon's many cross-outs and rephrasings.

"Err...that's really...uh..." Otacon stuttered off into silence.

"How could you do that? You know how busy I am and you..." She looked at him over the top of the sheet, dark eyes glinting.

"It's not what you think!" Otacon, realising this was going down-hill fast, made a desperate attempt to head off a complete catastrophe.

"Oh? So what am I thinking?" Too late. She had already shifted full on into self-righteous mode.

_What's going on over there?_ Snake's voice cut in on his codec, echoed on the laptop's speakers. Otacon winced; he had left the codec channel open. Snake sounded irritated.

"Oh, hi Snake!" Mei Ling greeted him happily, then shifted back into ominous tones, "do you know that Otacon's been-"

"Err, Mei Ling, we're in the middle of a mission and everything, so can we, you know...?" Discuss this later? Much, much later, preferably. Snake, thankfully, refrained from commenting.

"Fine, sure." Sulking. Oh boy. "And Snake, the real meaning of 'care avoids err' is that if you're cautious you can avoid making serious mistakes. Even if you've gotten used to the mission, watch what you do. Good luck."

"Yeah, Snake, good luck!" At least he might be able to keep himself on good footing with one of his two colleagues...

"You, I'm not done with." Mei Ling turned back to him, a worrying glint in her eyes.

"Ahh!"

"Let's discuss this, shall we?"

He managed to get his arm around behind him to switch off the codec at this point. At least Snake would have some peace and quiet.

"Look, I'm really sorry. I just kind of got, you know, carried away." There was no way he was intimidated by a girl almost fifteen years younger than him, and ten inches shorter. No way. Absolutely not.

"Mm hmm?" But boy, for a five-foot twenty-one year-old, did she have a gimlet glare.

"I really appreciate the work you put into this, and everything, so don't think..." maybe if he dug fast enough, he could dig himself through this hole and out the other side. Chances seemed slim, however. He was rapidly sliding back in.

The computer beeped, and Otacon turned to it, Mei Ling leaning over to watch over his shoulder. The image program popped up. Snake had plugged the camera into the node on the ship. Perfect excuse: Mei Ling wouldn't interrupt him in the middle of mission work. He scanned through the images as they loaded, checking each for angle, clarity, brightness, then switched on the codec. "These are all great, Snake. Maybe you should consider a job in photography." Another program popped up, the timer on the Commander's speech, cutting his dialogue with Snake short. "Uh oh, looks like the Commander's wrapping up his speech. Never mind about the rest of the photos, just get out of there."

_Right._

The codec cut off, as did the photo feed.

"You only have one chair?" Mei Ling glanced around the interior of the van. There probably was room for two right now with all the cabinets shut and nothing being assembled on the floor if one were placed directly behind the other, but the current neatness was unusual.

"Sorry. I'd offer you this one, but..." He turned back to the computer, labelled the images and saved them to a folder, emailing himself a copy just in case.

"I know." She shifted to lean against the back doors.

"You can sit up front, if you want to stay. The blinds'll have to stay shut, though, or someone might see the light." The van was equipped with thick black-out curtains on a rail running directly behind the two front seats, currently pulled closed to keep the light in the back of the van from shining suspiciously out the front windows.

"I'll stay back here for a while. Is Snake almost out?"

"He should be getting out of the hold now. Unfortunately he missed his exit point, so it's going to be a while before he gets off... the ship- what's he doing?" Otacon trailed to a halt and maximized the window showing Snake's progress through the ship. He hadn't exited the main hold, but instead was moving slowly away from the door. The Marines were acting oddly, too. They had broken formation, several charging forwards towards the Metal Gear, the others moving to stand in a rough semi-circle around it. "What the hell's going on in there?" It wasn't Snake at the centre of the circle; he hadn't been discovered. A different uninvited guest? It seemed that the tanker was full of them, tonight.

"Can't you listen in over his codec?" Mei Ling suggested from behind him.

"Yeah. It'll take me a minute to open the channel without contacting Snake though," he began, fingers already flying across the laptop's keys. "I don't usually listen in if the radar's working."

He set the computer up to send the signal to the speakers as well as his own nanomachines for Mei Ling's benefit, then tapped his fingers on the bottom of the laptop, waiting for the connection to establish.

The speakers crackled to life with the sounds of whatever Snake was hearing, currently a gruff voice raised to shout. "Show's over. If you wish to live, I suggest you run now. This ship is still in the Lower New York Harbour. You may yet make it to shore if you swim for your lives."

"Holy- What the hell..." Otacon brought up a new program, a satellite imaging program, began typing furiously. "I recognize that voice." It didn't bring back any good memories.

"Really? Who is it?"

Otacon continued to type at speed, but turned slightly to address his answer to Mei Ling, "It's Revolver Ocelot. He was at Shadow Moses, he fought Snake I think, before I met him- Snake, I mean."

"So how do you know him?"

"He and the rest of the terrorists were there for several days before Snake arrived. He got Rex's specs from me." Otacon said no more, slightly ashamed of his betrayal. He had handed over the designs for Rex without a fight, without resistance, when Ocelot demanded them. In return, Ocelot had let him be, alone in the lab. Otacon had only felt marginally better about his betrayal when he learned of the torture undergone by the other execs involved, knowing that he never would have been able to stand up to that.

"I'm surprised he continued to fight, after losing an arm." Mei Ling broke into his thoughts, scattering them apart like crabs scrambling to hide back under their rocks.

"Hm? Yes. Well, he was always pretty determined. And pretty damn cold. I'm not surprised he got over it."

From over the codec came the sound of an explosion, of metal whining under high stress. Otacon pressed the enter key. The program he had been loading came to life on the laptop, already focused in on the Lower New York Harbour thanks to his pre-booting commands. A couple of clicks of the laptop's keys focused it in on the Verrazona bridge, then lower, lower...

"There!" Shouted Mei Ling in his ear. She had clenched her hands on the back of his chair, her knuckles digging into his shoulder blades. Otacon winced, but nodded. The tanker was indeed there, although it was only due to its close proximity to the highly lighted bridge that it was visible in the dark stormy night. On the codec, Snake and Ocelot were shouting at each other. Otacon ignored them in favour of watching the tanker. Snake had taken care of Ocelot once, he could do it again...

"Oh, my god." The tanker was already listing slightly to the side.

"You're going down, Snake, with this tanker!" shouted Ocelot's voice over the codec, although the accent was different than the one Otacon remembered. The sound of gunfire and shouting, and some sort of mechanized howling took over the codec.

"Snake? Snake, are you okay?"

Silence. Otacon switched programs, back to the radar showing the inside of the tanker. It was a warzone. There were only five or six bodies registering, where there ought to have been dozens. Snake was pressed against one of the tanker's walls, unmoving.

"Damn I wish I had visuals. Snake?" If he stared enough at the little dot, maybe, maybe... yes! It moved, slowly, away from the wall.

"Otacon. We have a problem." Snake sounded calm as ever.

"No kidding. What the hell's going on in there. Is that Ocelot?"

"Yes. And no. He's blown a hole in the tanker, it's going down. And he's got the Metal Gear, it looks like – oh fuck. This is _not_-" Snake's voice went silent, abruptly, coinciding with what sounded something like Rex's laser. Quite possibly, it was RAY's.

"Snake? Snaaaake!" The radar, information sent from a transmitter on Snake, went dark. Otacon allowed himself a second of humanity, pounded the desk once and shaking everything on it, then brought up the satellite window. Behind him, he heard Mei Ling whisper Snake's name.

They watched as the tanker began to break in half, the middle of both sections already beginning to sink. For an instant, the two of them sat there completely still and silent, alone in a Mr. T. rip-off van in the middle of an empty marina's parking lot. Then Otacon stood abruptly, so quickly he pushed his chair back into Mei Ling, who stumbled.

"Call the harbour patrol, and emergency services. Now." He took a step over to the weapons cabinet, unlocking it with shaking hands.

"Right." Although she sounded shaken, he heard her pulling out her phone immediately.

As Mei Ling spoke rapidly on her cell behind him, he rooted around in the cabinet wondering why the hell they had three PSG-1s but no goddamn wire clippers. He found some eventually, underneath a box of .40 rifle bullets which were damn useless unless they happened to find a rhinoceros in their back yard and why the hell was he thinking about rhinoceroses now? Forcing himself to concentrate, he grabbed the clippers, a long knife, and a USP, just in case, tucking the last into the back of his belt after checking the safety and clip. Mei Ling had hung up on the 911 operator and was talking swiftly but coherently to the harbour patrol. Otacon scrambled up over the desk and grabbed his coat from where he had shucked it off in the passenger seat, and turned towards the door just as she snapped her cell-phone shut.

"They're on their way."

"Okay. You stay here, watch the satellite images and-"

"I'm coming with you!" Mei Ling cut him off.

"No way, it's much too-"

"Oh, so you think you can pull Snake out of the Harbour all on your own?"

"And if the Russians, or Ocelot, are still out there, do you think you can fight them?" Otacon didn't consider himself tall on average, but at 5 '10 he still towered over Mei Ling, and he glared down at her as stern as he could manage.

"Do you?" She glared right back up at him. "We don't have time to argue. Come on!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the van door. He stumbled out, nearly tripped on the bottom of the door catch.

Outside it was cold and windy. This was nothing to the rain that was pouring down, though, wind blowing it straight at their backs where it hit like a shower of bullets. They hurried over to the fence surrounding the stairs down to the boats. Otacon slipped the knife into his belt directly over his left hip where it wouldn't impair his movement, grabbed the wire-clippers in his teeth, and jumped up on the chain-link wire fence. It was easy enough to climb, and the clippers made short work of the barbed wire at the top. Mei Ling followed him up and over. As she climbed down the other side rather than jumping, he noticed that she was wearing a tight knee-length skirt and high heels. He opened his mouth to comment on it, then remembered Snake, possibly drowning out in the Harbour, and ran on down the stairs to the docks. Otacon heard her clatter down behind him, then silence. He turned back to find that Mei Ling had ditched her heels and hiked up her skirt, and smiled grimly.

The dock had a long section which ran parallel to the side of the bay, from which three long separate docks spread out into the bay like long reaching fingers.

"Do you have a boat?" Shouted Mei Ling in his ear.

"No," he shouted back.

"Then what are we doing here?"

He ignored her and ran right, down to the first dock, skidding dangerously around the corner on the wet wood. He bypassed the sail boats and the large cruisers, scanning left and right, until he finally found what he was looking for. It was a relatively small speedboat, perhaps only thirty feet long. The front was all fibreglass, sloping up to a window behind which the steering wheel sat, the open back covered with a thick grey canvas. The canvas zipped directly into the sides of the boat all the way around the sides, the two zippers locked together where they met with a padlock. Otacon's knife made quick work of the covering, though, and he and Mei Ling jumped into the boat, stumbling when it rocked with their movement. Otacon tossed the mutilated canvas covering over into the bay, where it began to sink slowly, and addressed himself to the ignition slot.

"Can't we just turn the motor on?" Mei Ling, at the back of the boat, pointed at the small motor there.

"That's the emergency motor, in case the main one breaks down. If we use it, we'll average maybe 5 miles an hour. Might not get anywhere at all in these waves." He used the knife to lever open the bottom of the steering block, and began to fiddle with the wires. Mei Ling returned to stand next to him.

"Can you really hotwire a boat?"

"We'll find out." He began rewiring the ignition, waiting for a spark. "Come on, come on, come on, goddammit!"

"Hal..."

"Just-" there was a roar from the back of the boat as the engine started. "Yes!" He pushed the throttle down. The engine continued to roar, but nothing happened. The two turned and looked to the back of the boat. It was hard to tell if the motor was working; the wind and the rain were churning the water up fiercely on their own.

"Why isn't it working?"

"I don't know! It should be, it sounds right!"

"You're a man, don't you just know?"

Otacon glanced at her sideways through narrow eyes. "Got a hairpin?" he asked, sarcastically. She blinked.

"Yes," and began to comb through her hair with her fingers. He stared, surprised that any women still held on to that stereotype, then shook his head.

"Never mind, it was- the moorings, of course!" Forgetting about his snarking, he sprang to the side of the boat and out, catching his foot as he went and sprawling out onto the wooden dock. Ignoring his scraped hands, he scrambled to his feet and ran forwards to untie the rope holding the boat in place. Mei Ling hopped out more gracefully and untied the one at the back. Free, the boat began slowly to drift away. Mei Ling got back in easily, Otacon forced to jump a little. He gunned the engine again and this time the boat responded. They sped out of the club, their wake setting the boats they passed rocking violently against their moorings.

The marina had been built into a small cove, and as such was somewhat protected from the more open waters of the harbour. Once they got out into these waters the boat began to rock seriously, slamming up over waves into the open air and down the other side with a bang and a jolt. Otacon pointed the nose steadily north-west, one hand on the wheel and one on the throttle. Mei Ling stood next to him, peering into the gloom, one hand on the dashboard, the other clutched tightly on Otacon's arm.

"This is why you should have stayed in the van. You could have navigated for me."

"Just head for the bridge- there it is!"

"Where?!" Otacon began looking around frantically.

"Not the boat, the bridge! Look!" She pointed at the long line of lights in the distance. "The boat should be around here somewhere, right?"

"It's technically a ship." Accuracy lent him a false sense of control. "And we're a little far south." He coaxed more speed out of the engine, boat already pounding dangerously over the waves.

"You men and your toys," scoffed Mei Ling, voice light while her face was lined with worry.

"Which of the two of us wanted to become a pilot, remind me," replied Otacon in a distracted tone.

"That doesn't mean-"

"Look, there!" Otacon cut off Mei Ling, pointing with his throttle hand briefly.

"I don't see it."

"Not the ship, the ocean. See how it's oddly disturbed there. Something big went down here, the water's being pulled in to replace the air. Damn, we should have thought to bring a flash light."

"I'll see if there's one in the boat." Mei Ling slipped away, began searching the insides of the small vessel. Otacon began to circle around, wary of coming in too close and being dragged down with the tanker. Was that the sound of a chopper, or just the wind? He looked up, didn't see anything. Too damn nervous. Calm down.

"There's nothing here. What about the cabin?" Mei Ling returned, indicated the door in the wall under the dashboard. It no doubt led to a small shallow cabin, which would take up all the space under the ship's long nose.

"Check it."

"It's locked."

"I put the wire clippers on the back seat." He didn't spare her a glance.

Mei Ling left, returned again with the clippers, began trying to chop the padlock off. "Nn..." She twisted, trying to get more leverage. "I can't."

"Here, you drive. Don't get in too close." Otacon waited for her to take the wheel from him, then bent and grabbed the wire clippers. He locked them in around the padlock, pressed the two handles together as hard as he could. "Arrr-ha! There." The metal cut with a remarkably anticlimactic sound, just a quiet click in the raging storm. The padlock fell off onto the ground.

"Thanks." Mei Ling handed him back the wheel, crawled into the cabin.

Otacon spotted something floating in the water, light from the bridge illuminating a corner, and slowed. Just a crate. But it meant they were in the right place. Come on, Snake...

The wind shifted from his right to begin blowing at him from directly behind, driving the rain water hard into the boat, and his already soaked form. The bigger waves were slopping up over the back of the boat, too, onto the ugly dark blue carpet. They were taking on water.

"Found one!" Shouted Mei Ling, voice muffled inside the cabin, and emerged backwards from under the dashboard bearing her bright yellow prize triumphantly.

"We just passed some wreckage. This is where we need to be. Stand over on the left there and start looking." Otacon gestured with his driving hand, boat taking a sudden lurch, and then another as he pulled it back on course. It might have been his imagination again, but he thought he could hear the whine of stressed metal again. He couldn't see any signs of the tanker itself, which wasn't very odd considering it had had multiple holes blown in the hull and doubtlessly gone down quickly.

Something thumped hard against the right flank of the boat, and both Otacon and Mei Ling jumped, Mei Ling hurrying over to see what it was.

"It's just a crate. No one on it. The side of the boat looks okay, too."

"Right." The more time passed by, the less chance there was of finding Snake – or anyone else – still alive. Or at all. Otacon tilted his head to peer out to the left, and straightened abruptly when the wind blew what felt like a bucketful of freezing water down the back of his neck. As he jerked around, something caught his eye. Just another dull shine, like the waves in the bridge's light, but...

"Mei Ling, shine the light over here," he gestured to the right. She slipped over to stand slightly behind him, shining the light over his shoulder. It wasn't very bright, almost useless really in the storm but in its light...

"It's him!"

It was a body, at least, floating in the water. Otacon jerked the throttle up, then back down again when it sent the boat flying forwards further than expected. "Whoa." Heart hammering in his chest, he turned to Mei Ling. "You take the wheel."

He was running to the back of the boat before he even heard her reply, leaning out dangerously far. Where was he? God, he couldn't have sunk in just a few seconds, could he? What were the chances if he jumped into the water, he'd be able to get back out again? No, that was stupid, he'd never make it in the rough current, with these waves. But...

"Hal!"

"I'm looking! I don't see- there!" A wave crashed over, and Otacon spotted the man. His heart leapt into his throat. It was Snake, bandanna and all, floating on his back in the water, apparently unconscious. He was four, maybe five feet away. Even leaning out as far as he possibly could, he was a good three to four feet short. "Stop the boat, we're going to get too far!"

"Can you reach him?"

"No!"

"We should circle around."

"We might not find him again. Listen, if I jump in, I can probably-" he was cut off as a wave slammed into the side of the boat, salty water filling his mouth. He spat it out, disgusted, began to clamber over the side of the boat.

"Wait, Hal!"

He didn't, swung a leg over. "Hal! There was a fishing rod in the cabin, we can reach him with that! Don't go in, I couldn't get you out again!" She scrambled into the cabin and out again in an instant, running over with a long fishing rod which she swung out into the water at Snake's still form.

"You'll never get him, there's nothing for it to catch on. You'll push him under, stop!" he grabbed the pole and pushed it away to the left, a second after she did indeed cause the floating man to sink an inch in the water.

"Can you swim?" She pulled the rod back into the boat, threw it into the cabin.

"Yeah."

"Good. Then you can come get me if there's trouble."

"What- wai-" he didn't have time to finish before she had jumped over the side of the boat, plunging into the cold New York Harbour. "Mei Ling!"

He leant over the edge, ignoring the cold waves lapping at his hands, searching for her dark head. She surfaced a few seconds later, coughing, but then began to swim towards Snake. She was not an overly strong swimmer, but the waves weren't pushing her under either.

"Mei Ling!"

She cut through a wave and reached Snake, treading water as she tried ineffectively to wake him. After a few seconds, she looped her arms around his chest and began swimming backwards to the boat, resting Snake's head up above the water on her chest. Otacon scrambled for the flashlight, found it, and turned it on, weak beam pointed at the struggling pair. It didn't help much, and after a few seconds the light began to flicker. Otacon cursed it and threw it violently back into the boat where it hit the wall and turned off altogether.

The wind shifted slightly, waves beginning to roll in from the right, and the boat began to be pushed backwards, away from the swimmers. Or it was beginning to be dragged down by the undertow created by the tanker's sinking. Otacon spared the other side of the boat a glance. The water over to the left was moving quickly, but suspiciously without waves. "Mei Ling, hurry up!" He cupped his hands around his mouth to try to throw his voice further. If she heard him, she gave no sign of it.

This was taking too long. He wasn't even sure if Snake was breathing... Turning his head, he caught sight of the fishing rod, grabbed it and swung it out over the side again, manoeuvring it carefully until it brushed Mei Ling's shoulder. He saw her start, then look at it. She shifted her grip on Snake to use only one hand, and reached up to grab the rod with the other. He began hauling, finding that in the water, their weight was easily manageably. It only took a couple of seconds to pull them in, stopping just before Mei Ling would have hit her head on the side of the boat. "Let go!"

She did, and he pulled the rod into the boat, chucking it back into the cabin. He turned back to find she had reached up with her free hand to grasp hold of the side of the boat, turning so that she and Snake were lying parallel to the boat in the water, keeping Snake's head up with an awkward turn of her shoulder. She looked up at him with fearful eyes, face and lips worryingly pale. "I don't know if..."

"Here, come down where the side's lower." He pulled her down closer to the idling. engine. Kneeling down, he leant out of the boat as far as he could, grabbing at Snake's torso awkwardly. "Need to get you some handles, or something...urg..." It was difficult, dragging him up out of the water and watching not to twist or bump anything. With a big wrench, he dragged Snake up so that his waste was resting on the side of the boat. Then with a stronger heave, back screaming, Otacon managed to pull him all the way in, collapsing back into the boat, Snake falling on top of him. He slid himself out from underneath, torn between checking on his partner and pulling Mei Ling out of the water. He settled for the latter, finding her weight much more manageable. He jerked her up and over the side in one clean movement, thanking both Heaven and Snake for the exercises and training the latter had been putting him through. Once out, Mei Ling fell into the corner, panting heavily, shivering. "You should get into the cabin, out of the rain." It was the only thought he could manage to address to her before turning back to Snake.

Cursing his soaking glasses, Otacon fell to his knees beside his partner, turning him slightly so that he lay flat on his back, pulled at the high collar of his sneaking suit. Under his fingers, Snake's skin felt cold. He couldn't find a pulse. Blood hammering in his veins, Otacon raised a hand to his own neck, found it equally cold and pulseless. His fingers were completely numb. "Dammit..."

He'd never be able to hear Snake breathing in this racket. He pressed his head against his partner's chest instead, closed his eyes, put a hand up to block out the noise in his other ear. Nothing, nothing... there! His eyes snapped open, and he shifted his head slightly to the right, lower. Snake's heart was beating, albeit slowly.

"Hal?"

He turned to find Mei Ling crouching at his side, arms wrapped around her thin frame, eyes wide. He nodded, managed something like a smile. "He's alive." He took a deep breath, than another. Relax. Everything was okay now. Almost. "We need to get out of here."

He stood, stumbled, headed up to the dashboard. The boat was beginning to pull seriously to the left. He pushed down on the throttle once more, turned the wheel sharply to the right so that the boat spun around in a tight circle in the rough water.

"H-hal, stop the boat! Stop!"

He immediately pulled the throttle back, setting the boat into neutral, and ran back to Mei Ling, casting his eyes down at Snake.

"What?"

She, however, wasn't looking at the unconscious man in the bottom of the boat, but out at the water.

"There's someone out there."

"What?" Otacon followed her gaze, then looked back to her.

"I just s-saw someone, in the water. Turn the b-boat around."

"With the forming underwater rift, we could be pulled under! Besides, you two are well on your way to shock and hypothermia." He wasn't feeling so great himself, either. But the rain was warmer and less dangerous than immersion the Harbour water.

"So you're j-just going to l-leave him there!" She glared at him, dark eyes sparkling in the gradually receding lights from the bridge.

"Mei Ling..." He opened his mouth to say more, and found that even to himself he couldn't justify it. They both needed medical care soon, but not this instant. There was no excuse for leaving anyone to die. "Fine." He sighed, turned and slid back to the wheel, turned the boat around again, slower this time, peering over the appropriate side. All he saw was dark waves, pushing the small boat around dangerously like a cat toying with a mouse. This was suicidal, they needed to get back to land. He tightened his grip on the wheel, intending to turn the boat for a third time, when he caught sight of the man Mei Ling had been talking about. Supported on a thin wooden pallet, only his blond head was above water. Otacon edged the boat closer, then shifted back down to neutral again and slid down to the back end of the boat. Mei Ling began to stand up, and he pushed her back down gently. "It's fine, I've got it."

While the man was several feet out, the end of the plank was within reach, and Otacon grabbed it awkwardly in his numb hands, twisted it to bring its passenger in closer. Finally the corner bumped against the side of the boat, and Otacon reached out, grabbed the man by the arm. This caused him to turn in the water so that he was lying completely face up. Or, more accurately, she. A woman soldier, not dressed in Marine fatigues. This must surely be the woman Snake had fought, Gurlukovich's daughter, Olga. He turned to look at Snake. Still unconscious. She was an enemy but... he wasn't a murderer. Neither was Snake. He pulled her up against the side of the boat, slipped his arms around her waist and pulled her in, lying her down at the bottom of the boat. Mei Ling crawled over, checked her pulse.

"She's still breathing."

"Good." Slightly unsure of what he was doing, Otacon checked her waist, pockets and ankles for weapons, and found none.

"Keep an eye on her. If she wakes up, call me." He stood, navigated his way around Mei Ling and Snake back up to the wheel. With two extra people and several buckets worth of water, their boat was sitting lower than ever in the rocky bay, and was once again being pulled down with the tanker. Otacon brought the engine back to life and pushed the throttle down to nearly full, turning the boat in a wider circle this time. Neither he nor Mei Ling saw any more victims.

If he thought the wind and waves had been bad on the way there, they seemed ten times worse on the way back. Every gap he steered for was blocked off by a new wave before he got to it, forcing the boat over wave after wave, fibreglass bottom slamming down hard against the unyielding ocean water each time, shaking all four occupants mercilessly. Otacon had stopped trembling a while ago, which didn't bode well for the other three who were wetter and colder than him. Finally he spotted the cove, and the docks. He slowed down, letting out a thankful sigh as they entered calmer water, and steered the boat around towards the place it had come from. He eventually found an empty slot, although whether or not it was the correct one, he didn't know or care. There was movement on one of the further docks, several people walking about with flashlights. Otacon killed the engine, stumbled down past the three others and pulled himself over the side of the boat onto the doc. He looped the rope through the bars adorning the boat's nose a few times, and did the same for one of the bars by its engine, fingers too numb for knots.

"Mei Ling, are you okay to walk?" He scrambled back into the boat, helped the woman to her feet.

"I think so. I'll manage." She swayed, but didn't fall. He helped her over to the side, pulling himself out again and then her after him. He went back into the boat, grabbed Olga's arm and pulled her up onto his shoulders. He staggered under her weight, but managed to cross the boat and somehow miraculously get out again onto the dock without falling into the bay.

"Wait here. I'm going to go hand her off to someone else."

"What?"

"We can't get both her and Snake out, so someone else's going to have to deal with her. Don't worry, there's people over there. They'll look after her." He stumped off, unable to stand around with her weight on his shoulders any longer, heard Mei Ling assent quietly behind him.

Otacon carried her along to the main connecting dock, and then over to the third branch where he had heard people. Sure enough, there were several clustered around the bottom of the dock. He walked down about halfway, and deposited Olga on the middle of the dock, laying across the ways so that anyone who came along would be bound to notice her. The idea that he should take her directly to a hospital was offset by the idea that he would in that case have to make a second trip after carrying 200 pounds of Snake to the van, and that he was already so exhausted he wasn't sure he could make the trip alone. The guilt wasn't buying it, but he didn't have time to appease it any further, and so slunk back to the first dock.

Mei Ling was sitting by the boat, knees curled up beneath her, arms wrapped once again about her. "She'll be fine," he said with confidence he didn't feel himself, and entered the boat for what seemed like the millionth time that night.

"Dave?" Even if Snake had been conscious, Otacon wasn't sure he would have heard him. Otacon pressed a hand against the side of his partner's face, unable to tell even how cold he was. He bent down and pressed his ear to Snake's chest again, was once again slightly reassured by the steady beat he found there. Probably just exhausted. Never mind that Snake seemed to have almost boundless strength of will. He would wake soon. Surely. Sighing, Otacon grabbed his arm, struggled to pull him up onto his back. The boat rocked violently beneath him, and he stumbled backwards, catching Snake awkwardly. This was never going to work. He dragged Snake over to the side instead, where Mei Ling had pulled herself up onto her knees and was determinedly looking ready to help.

Wishing he were stronger, vowing silently to work out more, Otacon slipped an arm under Snake's knees, another under his back, and pushed. He gritted his teeth together, slipped his knees under Snake to take part of the weight, and managed finally to roll the larger man out of the boat onto the dock. He slipped out after him, panting, and sat down waiting for the flashing lights to go away.

"H-hal? We should get moving."

Otacon looked up, found Mei Ling watching him. Probably more worried about him than herself. Typical. He nodded. "Do you have the wire clippers?"

She shook her head. Otacon bit back a curse, and descended into the boat again, grabbing them from where they had been dropped next to the cabin door. "I swear to god," he said as he reappeared, "I am not getting back into this damn boat." He pulled himself out, handed the clippers to Mei Ling, and regarded Snake. "You could be more help," he told the unconscious man in a flare of anger, regretted it immediately. Wiping water off his face – a pointless gesture, it was replaced immediately by the rain- he bent down and grabbed Snake's arm again, this time managing to haul him onto his back, despite the treacherous rocking of the dock. He grunted, shifting Snake slightly, and began walking, Mei Ling pulling herself to her feet as he passed her. "Hurry up, I'm not too good at this." He was unable to look back and see if she was following for fear of losing his momentum, nearly the only thing keeping him going.

They made it all the way to the stairs, at which point Otacon dropped to his knees, slipping Snake off his shoulders. The staircase, although only spanning perhaps a story and a half, seemed infinitely long. And he could hear the voices returning from dock three. This was impossible. He was frozen and exhausted, Mei Ling was frozen, exhausted and half in shock, Snake was frozen, exhausted, in shock and unconscious. He could feel tears beginning to gather in his eyes from sheer frustration.

"Hal. I'll go first, start cutting a hole. You follow when you can." Mei Ling slipped past him, stockings running and torn, white hands clasped tightly around the wire-clippers. She began to climb the stairs one at a time, stopping for an instant on each one. He watched her climb five or six before pulling himself together.

"Come on, Dave. We're almost there." He pulled the man onto his shoulders again, the opposite way this time, and began to make his way up the stairs, trying not to stop.

By the time he got to the top, he felt like his lungs were on fire, legs shaking and head spinning. Mei Ling was sitting by the fence, clipping wire links one by one. She had already cut a line of them almost two feet high, and was now working on the horizontal piece. Otacon collapsed next to her, shifting Snake so that he lent against his side, scruffy head lolling on Otacon's shoulder. After a couple of minutes rest, his head had returned to normal – cold – and his legs felt more stable. His lungs continued to burn, but they were almost there. Mei Ling made the last click in the fence, and it fell away with a clatter. Down on the dock, people were shouting and moving around quickly, little lights flashing here and there. They had found Olga.

"D-done." she announced, and pushed the bit of fence away through the hole, crawling through after it. Otacon slipped his arms around Snake's chest and began shuffling backwards towards the hole. He gently put his partner down on the ground to crawl through himself, then reached through and dragged him out afterwards. Mei Ling was up and walking towards the car, bent over against the wind. Otacon stood, simply dragging Snake along now, arms wrapped around the unconscious man's chest under his arms again. They got to the van, where there was a brief scramble for the keys, and then into the warm back. It was much easier lifting Snake into the van than it had been into the boat. Otacon scrambled around in the right hand cabinets and turned up a pair of blankets, Mei Ling wrapping herself in one and Snake in the other. Otacon slipped out into the rain again, slamming the back door behind him, and around into the driver's seat. People were beginning to come up the stairway. He turned the engine over, revelling for a split second in the concept of a key, and then let the clutch out, van trundling off out of the parking lot. As soon as the van was steady in second, he turned the heat on full blast.

"W-where are we going, Hal?"

"To the hospital. You're practically in shock, you could catch hypothermia." He pulled out onto the main road, all local hospital locations memorized. Preparation seemed like a pain when it wasn't needed, but when it was, it could be a life saver. She could go to the hospital, and he could take care of the more resilient and more famous Snake back in the quiet hotel room they had rented.

"I'm okay. But Snake..."

"Hnn." A low rumble came from the back.

"Snake?" Mei Ling asked.

Otacon glanced in the rear-view mirror, saw Mei Ling lean down to shake Snake. "Are you awake, Snake? Can you hear me?"

"Mei Ling, you shouldn't try to wake him, he can be-"

"Wha?" Snake was waking up now, and was potentially dangerous when awoken in unfamiliar situations by unfamiliar people.

With a click of his teeth, Otacon dialled into Snake's codec. It was faster, and more sure. _Snake. You're safe in the van, with Mei Ling and me. Relax. We pulled you out of the harbour. You're going to be fine._

"Otacon?" said Snake, out loud.

"Yeah," responded Otacon, cutting the codec connection now that Snake clearly knew he was among friends.

"And _Mei Ling_?"

"Hi Snake." How she could be so cheery on demand, like flicking on a light-switch, Otacon wished he knew.

"You're right. We _do_ need to discuss this." He made a "brrr" noise, and wrapped his blanket more firmly around him. Otacon's thoughts skittered about like dropped marbles as he chased after them, trying to pull up the reference, and then remembered. Mei Ling scolding him earlier. He glanced at the clock in the dash. It had only been an hour since then. It felt like a year. A long, cold year. "But maybe after a hot shower. Or five."

"Right. So, Snake, were the proverbs useful?" He asked it mainly to keep his mind awake and focused. Falling asleep at the wheel and killing them all after they had gone through all that trouble was _not_ an option.

"Huh?"

"You know, Snake. The proverbs Hal re-wrote and misquoted," Mei Ling chimed in.

"Hey..." Maybe he shouldn't have brought it up after all. But it would be hard to fall asleep with her scolding him.

"Uh, yeah. They were... fine." Otacon glanced in the mirror to see his partner return it with an partially amused but mostly exhausted glance. "But frankly, I think your actual work is a lot more useful."

"Like when we come and haul your ass out of the harbour?" Otacon grinned, despite the annoying tingling in his fingers as sensation began to return to them.

"Yeah. Especially then. In fact, I think I have a saying for this occasion."

"Oh really, Snake?" said Mei Ling, interested. Otacon, stopped at a red light, looked in the mirror.

"It had better not be 'I love it when a good plan comes together.'"

Snake glared. "It's not. 'Play your strengths, or get played.'" He announced, with some significance.

"Who said that?" Mei Ling, puzzled. Otacon rolled his eyes, revved the engine as the light began to flicker.

"Solid Snake." He sounded inordinately proud.

Otacon snorted. The light changed. The black van sped off into the night.


End file.
